KlytemnestraClytemnestra

The wife of Agamemnon; she and Phoibe (Phoebe) were the daughters of Tyndareus and Leda; she was the half-sister of Helen and the twins, Kastor (Castor) and Polydeukes (Polydeuces or Pollux); her children were: Elektra (Electra), Orestes, Iphianassa (Iphigenia) and Khrysothemis (Chrysothemis).

Klytemnestra was falsely portrayed as the murderess of her husband seven hundred years after her death and the label has become indelibly attached to her name; in The Iliad, Agamemnon was said to have been killed by Aigisthos (Aegisthus) when he returned from the siege of the city of Troy; in the play Agamemnon by Aeskhylus (Aeschylus), the story is retold with Klytemnestra as the villain and Aigisthos as simply an accomplice; Klytemnestra had many reasons to despise Agamemnon and wish him dead but her role as murderess was thrust upon her by a playwright for dramatic effect and not based on the earliest accounts.

Before Agamemnon sailed away to Troy, he gathered his army on the island of Aulis but after offending the goddess, Artemis, the ships could not leave the harbor; the seer, Kalkhas (Calchas), said that unless Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter, Iphianassa, to Artemis, the fleet would not be allowed to leave the island harbor; Agamemnon summoned Iphianassa on the pretext that she was to marry Akhilleus (Achilles) and prepared her as a human sacrifice; when the time for the sacrifice came, Artemis took Iphianassa from the altar and substituted a deer in her stead.

The attempted sacrifice of Iphianassa and Agamemnon’s ten year absence from home led Klytemnestra into the arms of Agamemnon’s cousin, Aigisthos; when Agamemnon finally returned home he was murdered by Aigisthos; Klytemnestra and her lover, Aigisthos, were in turn murdered by her son Orestes; the murder of Agamemnon and Klytemnestra are the subject of three plays by Aeskhylus (Aeschylus) known as Oresteia; the plays are compelling in their drama and tell a very complicated story which tries to differentiate the subtle distinction between “vengeance” and “justice.”

Her name may also be rendered as Klytaemnestra or Clytaemnestra.

If you wish to read Oresteia, I personally recommend Aeschylus I translated by Richmond Lattimore (ISBN 0226307786); you can find Oresteia at your local library or you can order it through the Book Shop on this site which is linked to Amazon.com.

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